The Borrowers (2011 film)

Lore & Background

The Clock family—father Pod, mother Homily, and daughter Arrietty—live secretly under the floorboards of the Driver–Millman house. Arrietty is seen by James Millman, and they become friends, but his grandmother Mrs Driver grows suspicious. She finds missing items, including furniture from James' dead mother's dollhouse, and contacts Professor Mildeye online after discovering the Borrowers' existence, who specializes in Homo sapiens redactus. The Clocks escape via a drainpipe to the sewers, where Pod berates Arrietty for their predicament. They travel to the disused City Road tube station, where a thriving community of little people exists. There Arrietty meets Spiller, a biker-type leader, and after Pod hires him with a gold coin, the youths become friendlier.

Reader's Guide

The 2011 television film adaptation of The Borrowers updates the classic story for a modern audience, incorporating elements like online communication and a model plane. It features a notable cast including Stephen Fry as the eccentric Professor Mildeye and Victoria Wood as the suspicious Mrs Driver. The film explores themes of family, trust, and the conflict between discovery and secrecy. Its significance lies in bringing Mary Norton's beloved characters to a new generation, while adding a contemporary twist with the use of technology and a more urban setting for the Borrower community. The film's legacy is as a family-friendly adventure that balances humor and tension, though it remains one of several adaptations of the original novel.

Did You Know?

• The film stars Stephen Fry as Professor Mildeye, Christopher Eccleston as Pod Clock, and Victoria Wood as Mrs Driver.
• The Borrowers live under the floorboards of the Driver–Millman house and escape via a drainpipe to the sewers.
• Professor Mildeye specializes in a field called Homo sapiens redactus.
• In the post-credits scene, Mrs Driver slips a strawberry cream chocolate down the borrower hole and whispers 'Merry Christmas.'

Story & Adaptation

The 1997 adaptation of Mary Norton's 1952 novel takes a deliberately loose approach to the source material, weaving together a central conflict between a family of miniature people called the Clocks and a scheming lawyer named Ocious P. Potter. The Lender household becomes the battleground: young Pete Lender notices small items vanishing and sets traps, while his parents Joe and Victoria remain oblivious to the tiny tenants living beneath their floorboards. Potter exploits a missing will from the late Mrs. Alabaster to pressure the family into selling, planning to raze the house for condominiums. The narrative escalates through a series of chases and rescues—Arrietty trapped in a freezer, Peagreen swept into a dairy assembly line, the Clocks nearly drowned in liquid cheese—before culminating in a City Hall showdown where an army of fellow Borrowers subdues Potter. While audiences and critics celebrated the film's visual imagination and ensemble energy, several reviewers flagged the departure from Norton's original plot as a weakness, a tension that would follow the picture into its award-season campaign.

Ensemble Cast & Character Dynamics

Peter Hewitt assembled a notably eclectic British ensemble to bring the Borrower world to life. John Goodman anchors the film as Ocious P. Potter, the crooked attorney whose greed drives the central conflict, while Bradley Pierce brings youthful curiosity as Pete Lender, the boy who discovers and ultimately befriends the tiny family. The Clock household is led by Jim Broadbent as the resourceful patriarch Pod and Celia Imrie as the steady matriarch Homily, with Flora Newbigin and Tom Felton portraying their children Arrietty and Peagreen. Supporting roles add texture: Mark Williams plays Exterminator Jeff, a reluctant henchman who ultimately sides with the Borrowers; Hugh Laurie delivers dry comic timing as Police Officer Steady; Raymond Pickard appears as Spiller, a streetwise outie Borrower who becomes an unlikely ally; and Ruby Wax pops up as the deliberately obstructive Town Hall Clerk. Aden Gillett and Doon Mackichan round out the Lender parents. The interplay between the full-sized human cast and the miniature performers creates a layered comedic and emotional dynamic that critics singled out as a particular strength of the production.

Production & Visual Craft

Director Peter Hewitt pursued a hands-on, location-driven approach to crafting the film's visual world. Rather than relying exclusively on studio backlots, the production captured scenes in the real village of Theale, situated near Reading in Berkshire. The crew undertook a distinctive set-dressing effort on Theale's High Street, painting every building and shop a uniform dark green to give the town a stylized, storybook quality that complemented the fantastical premise. This commitment to tangible, painterly environments was a major factor in the critical response: reviewers consistently highlighted the film's inventive visuals and the tactile sense of scale that made the Borrowers' world feel lived-in and believable. The practical approach to set design and location work allowed the tiny performers to interact with real textures and spaces, lending the adventure sequences—a freezer trap, a dairy assembly line, a roller-skate chase powered by aerosol paint—a grounded physicality that pure studio work might have lacked. The result was a look that felt both whimsical and concrete, cementing the film's reputation as a visually inventive entry in the children's adventure genre.

Box Office & Industry Recognition

The Borrowers entered the British theatrical market in 1997 to solid but not dominant numbers. It opened at number two at the domestic box office, trailing Alien Resurrection in its first weekend, and held that second-place slot the following week, this time positioned behind Tomorrow Never Dies. Despite the competitive landscape, the film's critical standing was considerably stronger than its chart position suggested. Rotten Tomatoes reflects a 73 percent approval rating drawn from twenty-six critic reviews, with the site's consensus describing the picture as a delightfully spirited children's adventure that is both rousing and inventive. Audience reactions, as measured by CinemaScore polling, also landed in positive territory. The film's most significant industry milestone came in 1998, when it earned a BAFTA nomination for Best British Film. It ultimately lost that category to Gary Oldman's Nil by Mouth, but the nomination underscored the production's standing within the British film community. The combination of strong critical consensus, a respectable theatrical run, and a major award nomination positioned The Borrowers as a well-regarded British family film of the late 1990s, even as some reviewers noted reservations about the story's departures from Norton's novel.

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